Slack Lists: Track project tasks

When your team is collaborating in Slack, but keeping track of projects in another tool, context can get lost and progress slows. With Slack Lists, you can capture, visualise and stay aligned on tasks – directly where you’re already working.

Capture project work

Let’s say you’re starting a new project and you’ve created a channel to coordinate with the team. As you discuss the project in the channel, use a list to track key tasks and action items.

Create a new list

Start a list from scratch, or use one of our templates (the Project tracker template is a great option).

1. From your desktop, hover over   More, then select   Lists.
2. In the top right-hand corner, click on   New, then select   List.
3. If you like, select the Project tracker template from the column on the left, then click Use Template.

Customise your list

Customise the list with the information that you’d like to include. In the Project tracker template, Task, Status and Priority are added for you, but you can add, edit or delete fields to suit your needs.

Add a field

Edit a field

Delete a field

1. From the list, click any item to open it.
2. In the panel on the right, click Add field. You may have to scroll down to see that option.
3. Enter a name for the field and choose a field type. Select additional options if prompted, then click Save.

1. From the list, click any item to open it.
2. In the panel on the right, click the field’s name and select Edit field.
3. Edit the field and click on Save when you’ve finished.

1. From the list, click any item to open it.
2. In the panel on the right, click the field’s name and select Delete field.
3. Confirm to delete the field.

Add items to the list

Once you’ve set up your list, start adding items to it for each project task that you need to complete:

1. Click Untitled item and enter a description.
2. For each item, click the field cells to enter relevant data, such as title, assignee and due date. The data will be formatted according to the field type.
3. To add more items, click   Add item at the bottom of the list.

Note: You can turn any message into a list item. From a conversation, hover over a message and click the   three dots icon, then select Add to list.

Tip: You can also use our Project starter kit template – a bundle of pre-configured canvases, lists and workflows in a channel – to kick off and manage any project in Slack.

Visualise progress

With lists, you and your team can visualise progress in different ways by creating views that you can save and come back to.

Create views

For example, create a view that filters your tasks by priority and sorts them by due date.

1. From a list, click on the   filters icon .
2. Under Edit view, choose how you’d like to sort, filter, hide and group the items in the list. You can also choose between table or board layout.
3. Click Save View, then Save changes or Save as new view.
4. To switch between your saved views, click   All items. 

Keep the right people aligned

To keep the team aligned on work being done, share the list with specific people or channels and start dedicated message threads for items that need additional context. You can also set up alerts to get notified when items are updated.

Share your list

If there’s already a channel dedicated to the project, share the list there so that the right people will have access to it.

1. From a list, click on Share in the top right-hand corner.
2. From the General tab, select if everyone in your workspace should have Restricted, Can view or Can edit access, then click Save.
3. From the Channels or People tabs, add the names of people or channels who can collaborate on the list, then click on Share. The list will be sent as a message to the people or channels that you specified.

Tip: To see who a list has been shared with, click Share in the top-right corner of a list, then navigate between the Channels and People tabs.

Create a message thread

Whenever you need to have a focused discussion about a task or item, such as to discuss blockers or share a status update, create a message thread in a list.

1. From the list, hover over an item, then click   Add comment to start a thread or   View comment to continue a thread.
2. Type your message, then press   Send.

Note: You can read and reply to message threads about list items in the same place as your other threads by clicking   Threads in your sidebar.

Enable notifications

You can enable notifications on items in a list that you want to keep tabs on. For example, get notified whenever the status field of a specific item changes.

1. From the list, click on the item that you want to enable notifications for, or hover over it and click on   Open.
2. Click the   bell icon in the panel on the right.
3. Select a notification option from the drop-down menu.

Notifications for items will be sent to   Activity.

More ways to use lists